Grey Bay
by Ahnah12
Summary: When the Torchwood team locate an off-the-scale energy spike, it leads them to an abandoned warehouse and an abandoned alien, like nothing they've seen. Rated M just in case.
1. Energy Surge

Ianto was being pulled from sleep, but so slowly…

There was a far-off beeping and it felt like he was being dragged all the way up a well. Even when he reached the top he felt he wasn't quite fully conscious as he struck out clumsily at the pager he kept by his bed. He heard it tap the floor, then stop the awful noise it had been making.

He stretched, half-tempted to let the covers of sleep wrap around him again and pull him under, but he had his priorities straight, and top of the list was Torchwood and Captain Jack Harkness. This thought kept him from covering his head with a pillow and sleep for another couple of hours.

What was the time anyway? He heaved himself up onto one elbow and hit his alarm clock, running the other hand clumsily through his hair. Half twelve. He and the team had just worked for about fifty hours straight and he had only collapsed into bed at about ten, fully clothed and without brushing his teeth or even managing to put his shoes by the door, ready for the next day. Two and a half hours sleep is not enough to function on.

Sighing, he scooped up his pager from the floor, hoping that he hadn't hit the battery out. That would be just swell, him having to hop around in the dark, stubbing his toes to find some batteries.

As he pushed a button on the pager, it came to Ianto that he was grumpy. Jack thought he could just call him in whenever he felt like it. It was alright for him, he didn't need sleep, but he knew Ianto would get cranky if he didn't get his seven hours often.

SEVERE RIFT ACTIVITY- COME IMMEDIATELY

Ianto sighed, hauled himself out of bed and went to look for his shoes.

Fifteen minutes later, he arrived, still bleary-eyed to the Tourist Information Office and let himself in. Of course, it wasn't a real Tourist Information Office. It was just the front for Torchwood's base in Cardiff. Time was, Ianto had spent most of his time here, flicking through leaflets, diverting calls and ordering pizza for Jack and the others. Now, things seemed to be hotting up and he was needed more and more. Tonight, for instance.

The first thing Ianto saw as the heavy slab of concrete slid away to reveal the Torchwood hub, was Captain Jack Harkness striding around and yelling orders at everybody. His greatcoat billowed behind him as he took the stairs to his office two at a time and lunged into his office, before shooting out again and flying down the stairs.

"Ianto, my man! What kept you? Go start up the SUV please and bring it round, please." He gave Ianto a wink and turned to Tosh, who sat, as always, gazing at her computers and gadgets. "Tosh!" Tosh jumped a little, before tearing her attention away from the screens. "Take the scanner and all the equipment you need and meet us outside in two minutes."

Toshiko Sato nodded and started gathering bits of equipment together.

Ianto made his way quickly to the car. Obviously no-one was going to explain what was going on and he knew better to ask when everybody was so busy. He pulled the SUV around to the front, where Gwen and Owen were waiting. Owen had a large medical kit in one hand and his gun in the other, while Gwen held only her gun, which she was loading. Jack and Tosh ran out. Jack got in the front, next to Ianto, while Toshiko toppled into the back, hampered by all the heavy equipment she was carrying.

"Where to, Sir?" asked Ianto, pulling the SUV out as soon as Tosh's door was shut. He knew Jack didn't like it when he waited around for everyone to do their seatbelt up. Jack was hasty like that.

"North o' Cardiff." Jack answered. "The huge industrial area with all the large warehouses. We've picked up large amounts of rift energy up there that I feel needs to be investigated. Tosh picked up some kind of life force is there, stationary, but alive. Could be alien."

The SUV hurtled down dark streets in the night. It was nearing one o'clock in the morning, but adrenaline had kicked in for all of them. Ianto turned the windscreen wipers on as heavy, wet rain started to hurl itself upon the windscreen, blurring the view in front of the car.

"We get rift energy all the time." Said Owen from the back. "What's so special about his bit? Did you have to call us from our beds?"

"This is the largest spike we've seen in a long time." Answered Jack, peering through the rain into the night. "It disappeared as soon as it came, at about midnight, but it was off-the-scale huge. Something like that could be a serious threat and we need to check it out."

"We're nearly there." Announced Tosh, tapping a couple of buttons and looking at the equipment. "Take this right and then stop in about three hundred yards."

Ianto followed her directions.

"I can't go right, Tosh, there's a hulking great warehouse in the way." It was true. He had only gone about two hundred yards and could go no further because of the large building.

"Alright, everybody out." Ordered Jack. "Whatever it is will probably be in this building. We need to split up; there's bound to be more than one way out and in. Gwen, come with me, we can go round the front. Owen, Tosh, Ianto, you look for another way in and one of you guard it. We can't let this thing escape without knowing what we're dealing with it could be exceedingly dangerous."

He drew his gun from the front of his shirt, checking the ammunition before letting his arm drop to his side. Ianto admired the brisk, efficient manner he checked his weapon, the look of concentration on his strong face. Maybe tomorrow night, when the others were at home, they could some fun in the hub, just the two of them.

Gwen, Tosh and Owen were also checking their guns. Ianto bought his out and checked that he had a couple of extra shots in the inner pocket of his jacket and another couple in his trouser pocket. Be prepared.

"Alright gang." Said Jack in his American drawl. "Positions."

**A/N: I wanted to do a Torchwood Fanfic for a while now, but especially now as I've been watching all the season one episode and have been inspired. Let me know if you don't think writing Torchwood is a good thing for me to be doing and let me know how you think I'm doing so far.**

**I'm not sure how well I (sort of) portrayed the character of Ianto, but I wanted it to be him because he's my favourite (and pretty hot!) ;)**

**Thanks,**

**Meepit-squee x x x x x**


	2. Stun

Ianto stood, covering the exit they had found at the back of the warehouse. They had swept around the whole building, just in case there was another place to escape from, but had found nothing but a back-door entrance. Now, he was guarding this door so whatever was in the building couldn't get out. Gwen was at the other exit. He could see a thin shaft of light from the crack in the door. He peered into the gloom, seeing only occasional arcs of light as flashlight beams swept over him, making him jump.

"Ianto, still nothing there?" Jack's voice came to him via their intercoms, a harsh whisper in the silence.

"Nothing gone out this door, Sir." Ianto reported back, getting a firmer grip on his gun and holding it up. "No sign of it?"

"No." Jack paused. "Tosh, can you locate exactly where it is in this building? We don't want it sneaking up behind us." Ianto shuddered. _There's nothing behind you but the door, _he told himself, _scaredy cat. _

"Accurate to within a foot." Ianto could hear the pride in Tosh's voice as she confirmed this. Tosh and her tech. There was a rustling, then, "To your left, Jack, and not moving, oh, wait, _moving, _the life form is moving, further to your left Jack…"

A few seconds later, Jack made a triumphant noise and there was a high-pitched scream in the darkness, followed by a thump, scuffling and swearing. It was abruptly over; Ianto could hear Jack ragged breathing in his ear. His own heart was racing.

"Ianto, Gwen, come in, we've got it. It's out cold. Bugger almost took out my eye though." Ianto's heart soared in relief. Jack was safe. He started to make his way over to where he saw flashlight beams. The thin trails of light didn't relieve the darkness much; he couldn't see where he was going and tripped over some bit of wood lying on the floor.

When he finally made it to the group, they had managed to set up a lighting system around a body that lay on the floor. Toshiko had bought some lamps from the SUV just in case and they had been placed around the figure. Quick work.

Ianto's first impression of the alien was that it looked just like a human, similar build, though this one was pretty small compared to most, like a child. It was covered head to toe in some shiny silver material, like most stereotypical aliens are portrayed in. Even its face was fitted with a silver mask with no obvious slits for a nose or a mouth. Maybe this one had no nose or mouth, thought Ianto. It did, however have a bit of semi-opaque mesh that covered its eyes.

_It does have eyes then, _thought Ianto.

"Didn't like the stun-gun much." Said Jack, smugly. Ianto rolled his eyes at Jack blasé; as if anyone liked a stun-gun. Jack chuckled. "You hear it?" he mimed a fake high-pitch scream, imitating the alien. "Fast bastard, though." He commented. A huge bruise was forming around his right eye, blossoming into a lovely purple mark. Ianto could see he could barely keep his eye open.

He reached out to stroke Jack's temple. "Did it do this to you?" Jack winced as a finger brushed past his eye.

"It's fine." Said Jack shortly. "Didn't expect it to thrash out like that, tiny little thing." He smirked. " Lucky I still have my eyebrows on. Now, come on, let's get it to the SUV. Think you can carry it Ianto. Put those muscles to good use." As the others packed up, he gave Ianto a sexy smile behind their backs.

Ianto nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Jack always had this affect on him. His knees were turning to butter. He turned to the unconscious body, grabbing it round the waist and hoisting it up onto one of his shoulders. He could feel it drape down his back. He could feel its ribs through the thin fabric, though there seemed to be some padding at the waist. He set off easily to the front door of the warehouse. The thing was light enough to carry without groaning.

Even so, Jack passed him, giving his a quick pat on the bum as he overtook, grinning widely. Back at the SUV, Owen was preparing an injection that would make sure that the alien would stay asleep for a while. They would need to run lots of tests on it back at the Hub and also they didn't want it waking in the back of the car. They had no idea of what it could be capable of when it woke up.

Ianto lay it on the stretcher-like thing they kept in the boot just in case. It wouldn't do to have them rolling all over the place and knocking themselves silly while the SUV was moving.

He was looking down upon it when one of the alien's silver-clad fingers twitched and then flexed. "Jack." Ianto kept his eyes on the alien as it started to move its arm. "Jack, it's waking up!"

Jack swore. "Owen! Quick with that syringe!" Owen ran over, still tapping the glass of the jab.

"I don't know how this will affect it." he was saying. "We don't know how much it needs, we might overdose it, we-" Jack gave him a warning glance and pointed to the alien. "Do it. Now." Owen sighed.

"Alright, but if it dies, I'm blaming you, this could be seriously lethal."

The figure in the boot was still not quite awake, but Ianto decided to hold it down, or its movements might cause it to cut itself on the syringe. That had happened to his sister when she had had her Tetanus, diphtheria, polio injection and she had thrown up everywhere.

Owen pressed the needle down onto the metallic fabric in the crease of its arm. He withdrew it and frowned, then tried again on the other arm. Ianto, holding it down, felt it struggle more as it felt the needle against its skin. Owen sighed in exasperation. "Its no use, Jack, the needle can't pass that funny suit its wearing."

Jack grabbed one of the hands of the creature and tore one of the silver gloves off it. The creature gave a little moan and started trashing against Ianto's hand. Ianto held it down and tried to tell himself a crack he heard wasn't one of the creature's ribs breaking. There was another layer of black material under the shiny silver layer, but unlike the other one, this one did not put up any resistance against the needle. Owen slid the needle out.

Soon, the alien fell still and slumped into the stretcher, letting out a breath. Ianto tentatively let it go.

"C'mon team." Said Jack, motioning with his head to the car. "Let's get it back it the Hub."

**A/N: Please read and review and tell me what you think. I didn't get much feedback from the other chapter, so I'm beginning to think I have done something wrong. What do you think of my writing style?**

**I promise it will get a bit more interesting in future chapters, sorry for being such a bore. Anyway, thank you!**

**Meepit-squee x x x x x xx x x x x x**


	3. Layers

Ianto stood on the gallery in the autopsy room, looking down to the table below. It wasn't often they had a live alien down here; they always had a bullet-hole in their head, courtesy of Jack or they were all mangled up. The figure lying there today, however looked whole and perfect, its silver suit shining under the lights, all limbs intact.

Owen was taking a sample of its blood for analysis. It was still out cold, thanks to the drugs the doctor had injected into its system, but Jack had still thought to strap it down, just in case it decided to wake up. Ianto looked at Jack now and felt a surge of anger towards the alien. Jack was a fast healer, but his eye was still swollen shut, covered in purple.

Owen, taking advantage of the fact the alien had already had one of its gloves taken off hand drawn the blood from wrist. When he had held it, the joint had felt strange and bony and had made him shiver. It was still covered in the black opaque under layer, though, so he didn't have to see what was under it quite yet.

"Start up the scanner, Tosh." Jack instructed as he surveyed the room. "Owen, get that blood looked at as soon as possible. We don't want any nasty surprises. Gwen and Ianto, after we've scanned it I want that fancy suit it's wearing analyzed. A fabric that won't let a needle through is news to me." He nodded to them all as Tosh fired up the scanner.

"I'm done here." Announced Owen, transferring some blood into a testing bottle and taking off his surgical gloves. Dropping them in a bin, he then wheeled the gurney over to the scanner to where Tosh was pressing buttons. She pushed a final one and the scan came up on the screen. Owen adjusted the bed so all of the alien could be seen.

Jack looked at it for a minute. "That's no help." He said dryly. The scan showed the outline of the alien's body, but it was a white mass on the dark screen, apart from one of the hand which showed what looked like the bone structure of a typical human being. "That stupid suit again! That's it; let's take the whole thing off. Seems nothing gets through it, not even light." Ianto noted Jack wasn't in a very good mood after the scuffle with the alien in the warehouse. "Ianto, take it off, file it and analyse it. You never know, could be a great find."

Ianto nodded and he climbed down the steps from the gallery. Owen slid the gurney back to the centre of the room. Ianto took the other glove off the alien, then stopped, not really knowing what to do after that; the suit didn't seem to have a way out of it. There were no buttons, zips, velcro or anything to help unfasten it. Owen stepped in helpfully with a pair of surgical scissors. Ianto murmured thanks and used then to cut up the leg of the suit, up into the hips and waist, where he encountered strong padding, up past the chest and up to the neck before cutting into the fabric covering the head.

Owen help him to slip the suit off one arm an then the other, before folding it up when it was totally off. The figure seemed smaller with it off. The padding around the middle had added bulk, but with it off the alien was slim and frail-looking. The black layer covered every inch of the figure, from head to toe. Although it would have to be see-through for the alien to be able to see where it was going, Ianto couldn't see through the fabric to the alien. Like a veil, he thought.

Owen wasted no time in putting the alien back under the scanner. This time, the whole of the skeletal structure could be seen on the screen, from the long leg bone to the delicate bones of the fingers. Again, it just looked like a normal human skeleton. Jack looked doubtful.

"Are we sure this is an alien?" he asked. "Your scanner, Tosh, told us that something alien was present, but it could have been the suit or something."

Tosh moved her hand-held machine over the suit Ianto was carrying, then waved it over the body on the table. "Nope." She informed Jack. "It's not the suit. It definitely coming from the alien."

Jack nodded grudgingly. "Okay, well it looks normal to me. Do a tissue scan, Tosh. I want to see if it has any abnormalities in that department. Y'know, any extra organs and suchlike." He stroked the placed on his side, where Ianto knew he kept his gun tucked in. Ianto almost grinned. Jack was in an irritable mood. Jack was always at his naughtiest when he was irritable. A stress-reliever, theorized Ianto.

Tosh was pressing a couple of keys. A different image showed up on the screen. Ianto was looking at the muscle and organs of the alien.

Owen made a little noise of recognition. "Aha! See that?" He picked up a stick from somewhere and pointed to a dark mass under the stomach.

"Isn't it a kidney?" Tosh asked timidly.

"No."

"Small liver?"

"_No._ It's a Proteus gland! Or something very similar to one. Proteus glands are only in nostrovites, and this one isn't a nostrovite. Saw the jaw in the scan? Nothing like a nostrovite. No, this is a different alien, but we can be sure that it is a shapeshifter."

Jack sighed. "A shapeshifter? Are you sure?" Ianto wasn't sure, but for a moment, he could have sworn Jack looked very tired. That wasn't like him. Ianto couldn't really blame him; things were very busy lately. The amount of Weevils they had caught had tripled compared to other times and there seemed to be more aliens in the cells every day.

"I'm sure." Confirmed Owen. "You see the other organs such as the heart and lungs are a lighter colour than the gland? That's how you can tell; it's much denser than other organs."

Jack put his hand up to his jaw as he did when he was thinking. "I want the rest of the layers off." He announced. "I want to know exactly what it is we are dealing with and after that I want it contained. Give it a medical gown to wear."

Owen nodded. "Ianto, give me a hand with the clothes?" Ianto nodded, thinking of how they were going to get inside _this_ layer. Then he noticed the joins at the top of the legs and some at the neck and arms. There were little links holding them on. He undid the ones at the shoulders and pulled off the long glove. He half expected there to be another layer under the black one, but he pulled the fabric off to expose pale, soft-looking skin, thin wrists and long-fingered hands ending in lovely shiny nails.

He moved to the leg and undid the small clasps at the thigh. He could feel sharp hip-bones through the thin material. The leg slid off to reveal the same smooth, pale skin, thin ankles, fine toe-bones, small feet. Owen put the material in a tray as Ianto went around and took off the other leg and arm coverings.

He moved on to the clasps under the head that went all the way around the neck. He hands fumbled with them and he realised he was hurrying to see what the alien looked like. He pulled it up to show a slender neck and defined jaw-line. The lower jaw had a strap going under it, as if to keep something attached on top of the head. Ianto pulled the hood off completely and looked down upon the sleeping figure.

**A/N: Please review and tell me what you think, I have no idea if any people like my Fanfic. Give me feedback and tell me what I need to improve. I'm always open it criticism (and praise of course!) ;)**

**Thanks a lot, I love you all!**

**Meepitsquee xxxxxxx**


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